Multiplication and division teaching aids have been on the market for many years. The prior devices teach multiplication mainly by memorization. These devices embody the same basic learning process as involved with multiplication flash-cards. Children generally learn the multiplication tables by rote memory before they conceptualize the multiplication process.
Although the use of multiplication teaching aids are well known as in Jablonski U.S. Pat. No. 4,241,522; Tacey U.S. Pat. No. 3,435,541 and Passerini U.S. Pat. No. 3,172,599 which disclose multiplication and division teaching aids, the user only sees the numbers multiplied and the final product and not the basis for understanding the process. Similarly, in division, the user only sees the numerator, denominator and quotient without visualizing the process.
The present invention comprises a visual and manipulative aid to assist in teaching the multiplication and division processes by actual visual presentation. The device constitutes a plurality of lenses mounted within a frame and an opaque lens cover or panel which is slidable in the frame to uncover a selected number of lenses. The number of lenses uncovered corresponds to the multiplier. Small objects which correspond to the multiplicand are placed in the field of vision of the lens array. The child can determine the product by counting the total number of images which can be seen through each of the uncovered lenses. By simply counting the objects seen, children can begin to appreciate the relationship of multiplication and addition. Division can also be taught by simply reversing the multiplication process.
The principal object of this invention is to provide a new and useful visual aid to teach children multiplication and division by conceptualization and manipulation, not by rote memory.
Another object of this invention is to provide a teaching aid of the above type which is easily and inexpensively formed from a set of lenses, a simple frame and a lens cover slide. Students can make their own multiplication and division tables by utilizing the lense sets.